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I think if you asked me what’s the one thing I’m most proud of in my life, it’s my ability to make friends in nearly any situation. It’s not always easy and sometimes I have to question if these are even the friendships I want or need in my life, but it is an ability I’ve always had. Somewhere around the age of 24 my mom started realizing this and asked me if I ever got tired of running in different circles?
The truth is… yes and no.
Sometimes it’s hard because no matter what group you are in, there is always going to be someone or some trend they all hate, and let’s face it, no matter how old we get, we all hate being the person who likes something everyone else hates. However, the beauty in all of these circles of friends I have made through out my life is that I have had the chance to be introduced to amazing things I never imagined. We all adopt behaviors and trends from the people we are with, and the people who claim that they don’t are lying, sorry but maybe you are even lying to yourself about it.
Isn’t that what growing is though, learning, trying new things and changing? It’s not so bad.
One thing that I have worked very hard on in my adult life is never feeling guilty for the things I like, which for me is probably a bad thing because I like a lot of pop culture and not ironically. However, now that I’m in my late 20’s I never imagined that body issues wouldn’t be my only insecurity, now I’m always in fear that people see me as “basic”.
Basic has become the new insult for young women, and it’s most often hurled at us from other young women. So let me begin by saying that the word basic it’s self is a trend, so using it to shame others for following trends is counter-productive.
I saw this wave coming, the buzzfeed articles of girls being basic had infiltrated my facebook feed, and I already knew that I was at risk of a new label. Then one night while out with a good friend who I had not seen in a while she said, “have you seen people talking about people being basic? I looked it up and thought ‘these are all things Willa likes’”.
I laughed it off and said “yeah apparently I’m not exciting at all.”
The truth is in that moment I felt a little like she had just said to me “aren’t you ashamed that people think of you like this?”
I’ll be honest, because well honesty is all I have if I’m already writing a blog calling myself “basic”; I’ve been mulling this over for a few months now. My conclusion is that I just don’t care what you think about my likes and dislikes in this world. Clearly, I have enough interesting things about me or else I wouldn’t have met so many amazing people in my life.
I am just not concerned if you want to judge my shopping habits, music listening, TV show preferences or book choices based on what you think makes someone boring.
I like Taylor Swift, I dance to Britney Spears, I enjoy a good Zumba class, Pumpkin Spice Latte is delicious! So what, if I’m basic? If a few of my interest are enough for you to dismiss me, than I don’t see anything you have to offer that will enhance my life. You are the one who refuses to look past the superficial.
My advice is for women to quit finding new ways to insult other women. Celebrate each other and support each other. Think back to all the insults you’ve ever been hit with in your life, chances are the most hurtful insults you’ve ever received have been from other women. Also, generalizing someone because they might like a certain trend is really unfair to them and also to you, because making friends in other circles is way more exciting than only staying in your comfort zone for the rest of your life.